Supplements of folic acid may prevent age-related hearing loss in older men and women, says a new double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial from the Netherlands. The study, published in the new issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, followed 728 men and women between the ages of 50 and 70 randomly assigned to receive either a folic acid supplement (800 micrograms per day) or placebo for three years.

Lead author Jane Durga and her colleagues from Wageningen University and Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, and University Hospital Maastricht, reported that the folic acid-supplemented group exhibited lower age-related hearing loss in the low frequency region.

“Considering that the folate status of older adults is generally low in countries without folic acid fortification programs, our findings suggest a possible way to diminish the public health burden of hearing loss in those countries,” wrote Durga.

However, it is not known if such benefits would be observable in countries like the US and Canada where mandatory fortification occurs.

Folate is found in foods such as green leafy vegetables, peanuts, chick peas and lentils, and an overwhelming body of evidence links has linked folate deficiency in early pregnancy to increased risk of neural tube defects (NTD) – most commonly spina bifida and anencephaly – in infants.

The researchers suggest that hearing loss may be linked to homocysteine levels, which could be reduced by folic acid supplementation. However the focus of the study on people with lower homocysteine levels limited the researchers from extending the findings to a general population. The authors also note that no mandatory folic acid fortification was present in the Netherlands during the study, and that the baseline levels of folate in the blood was about 50 per cent that of the US population, where mandatory folic acid fortification is present.

“Folic acid supplementation slowed the decline in hearing of the speech frequencies associated with aging in a population from a country without folic acid fortification of food. The effect requires confirmation, especially in populations from countries with folic acid fortification programs,” concluded the researchers.

In an accompanying editorial, Robert Dobie from the University of California, Davis said that if such a benefit could be applied generally then a five-decibel decrease in age-related hearing loss might be observed over a 20-year period. This would lead to a subsequent significant reduction in the need for hearing aids.

The research was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, Wageningen University, and Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences.

Source: Annals of Internal Medicine
2 January 2007, Volume 146, Issue 1, Pages 1-9
“Effects of Folic Acid Supplementation on Hearing in Older Adults - A Randomized, Controlled Trial”
Authors: J. Durga, P. Verhoef, L.J.C. Anteunis, E. Schouten, and F.J. Kok

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A leading industry group has given scientists the go-ahead to build genetically engineered peanuts that could be safer, more nutritious and easier to grow than their conventional version.

The work could lead to peanuts that yield more oil for biofuel production, need less rainfall and grow more efficiently, with built-in herbicide and pest resistance — traits that have already been engineered into major crops such as cotton, corn, soybeans and canola.

For consumers, the work could lead to peanuts with enhanced flavor, more vitamins and nutrients, and possibly even nuts that are less likely to trigger allergic reactions, a life-threatening problem for a small percentage of the population and a major food industry concern.

A few researchers have been genetically modifying peanuts for at least a decade, but their discoveries have had little impact because the industry, fearing a consumer backlash, was reluctant to support the work.

However, with the two leading peanut-producing countries, China and India, working aggressively on transgenic peanuts, the American Peanut Council and its research arm, the Peanut Foundation, this month approved a major policy change. The council represents all segments of the industry — growers, shellers, exporters and manufacturers.

The foundation urged scientists to move ahead with ‘’due diligence’’ on genetically engineered peanuts.

The work is expected to cost about $9.5 million and will require university, government and industry support.

‘’It’s a significant redirection in their thinking,’’ said Peggy Ozias-Akins, a University of Georgia horticulture professor who has been working with genetically modified peanuts since the late 1990s.

The foundation also called for additional genome studies to learn more about the location and function of the natural peanut genes.

Because peanuts are considered a minor crop, their genetics still have not been studied as extensively as major crops such as soybeans, Ozias-Akins said.

Peanuts are believed to have originated in South America at least 3,500 years ago. Farmers in the Southern U.S. only started cultivating them in the early 1900s when the boll-weevil made it nearly impossible to grow cotton. Now they are grown in 15 states from Virginia to New Mexico. Georgia is traditionally the nation’s No. 1 producer.

The U.S. peanut acreage dropped from nearly 1.7 million acres in 2005 to 1.2 million this year, while the acreage for two crops that benefit from genetic modification, cotton and soybeans, increased.

While experts say peanut acreage may drop again next year, scientists believe genetically modified peanuts could help reverse the trend.

A group of 14 university, U.S. Department of Agriculture and food industry scientists, including Ozias-Akins, prepared a report on biotech peanuts and presented it recently to the Peanut Foundation. The scientists concluded the technology could reduce growing costs, improve nutrition and overall quality for consumers and have the potential to reduce the allergy threat in peanuts.

‘’There is a sense in the industry that genetically modified products are becoming slightly more accepted in most of the world and that by the time we would have the first genetically modified peanut on the market — five years — that trend will have accelerated,’’ said Howard Valentine, the Peanut Foundation’s executive director.

A small amount of genetically modified sweet corn, squash and about half of Hawaii’s papayas are the only U.S. crops currently grown for human consumption, said Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food and nutrition consumer advocacy group.

‘’Overall, our view is that genetic engineering is a technique that can be used to overcome grower problems, or to enhance consumer value in products,’’ he said. ‘’We support that as long as those products have been determined safe for human consumption.’’

(The New York Times, December 26, 2006)

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Eating enough of the B vitamin, folic acid, in the first weeks of pregnancy can prevent certain disabling birth defects. Additionally, studies show that folate consumption may aid in decreasing incidence of stroke and coronary disease among the elderly.

With these findings in mind the Government recommends increased folate consumption. Women of childbearing age, according to FDA, should consume 400 micrograms of folic acid every day. On average most only get half that.

A peanut butter sandwich or a snack of peanuts are an easy tasty way to incorporate more folic acid into the diet. For example a one ounce serving of peanuts delivers as much as 17.5% of the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of folate. When spread on enriched bread, peanut butter delivers even more.

Eating enough folic acid can cut by up to 50 percent a woman’s risk of having a baby with a neural tube defect in which the brain and spinal cord form improperly. In addition to peanuts and peanut butter other sources of folic acid are enriched bread and grains, citrus fruits and dark leafy vegetables.

http://www.aboutpeanuts.com/nutr3.html

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An increased intake of folate by diet and supplements may halve the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, suggests new research from the US. Writing in the Archives of Neurology, lead author Jose Luchsinger from Columbia University Medical Center, New York, reports that after analyzing the diets of 965 individuals, and then following them for about six years, the highest intake of folate from both dietary and supplements was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

After an average of 6.1 years of follow-up, 192 cases of Alzheimer’s disease had been diagnosed. After adjusting for potential confounding factors, like age, sex, ethnicity, cardiovascular history and B6 and B12 intake, Luchsinger and co-workers report that increasing folate intake, from both dietary and supplemental sources, was associated with a significantly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease (50 per cent risk reduction).

“We found that higher folate intake was independently related to lower AD risk in a predominantly Hispanic and African American cohort of elderly persons with a high prevalence of vascular risk factors,” wrote the researchers.

Higher folate intake was modestly correlated with lower homocysteine levels, “indirectly suggesting that a lower homocysteine level is a potential mechanism for the association between higher folate intake and a lower Alzheimer’s disease risk,” said the authors.

The link between Alzheimer’s and homocysteine involves the accumulation of amyloid proteins in the brains. In vitro studies have reported that folate deficiencies and high homocysteine levels may enhance the effects of amyloid-beta, which in turn would indicate an increase in Alzheimer risk factors.

The researchers stress that no definitive conclusion about the role of folate in the development of Alzheimer’s disease can be made, since the findings are at odds with previously published studies.

“Thus, the decision to increase folate intake to prevent Alzheimer’s disease should await clinical trials,” they concluded.

The B-Vitamin Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration should soon be better able to address the link between B-vitamins, homocysteine levels, and cognitive function. The effects of three to seven years of treatment with B vitamins on cognitive function should eventually be available on about 20,000 of the 50,000 participants with previous cardiovascular or renal disease from 12 large homocysteine-lowering trials.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Charles S. Robertson Memorial Gift for research on Alzheimer’s disease, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York City Council Speaker’s Fund for Public Health Research.

Source: Archives of Neurology
January 2007, Volume 64, Pages 86-92
“Relation of Higher Folate Intake to Lower Risk of Alzheimer Disease in the Elderly”
Authors: J. Luchsinger, M-X. Tang, J. Miller, R. Green, R. Mayeux

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contributed by Lisa @ the National Peanut Board

Peanuts and Peanut Butter are Naturally Cholesterol and Trans Fat Free.

Trans-fats:

According to a study by the United States Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS), both natural and commercial brands of peanut butter contain no detectable trans-fats.

Much of the confusion about trans-fats in peanut butter occurs because of the way peanut butter is labeled. Most peanut butters contain only three or four ingredients. By law, peanut butter must consist of at least 90 percent peanuts. In addition, a minimum amount of salt and sugar is usually added for taste, plus about one to two percent stabilizer to improve texture and increase shelf-life. The stabilizer typically is hydrogenated vegetable oil. (“Non-detectable Levels of Trans-fatty Acids in Peanut Butter,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, May 2001.)

Cholesterol:

Peanut butter contains no cholesterol. In fact, more than 80 percent of the fat in peanut butter is the cholesterol-lowering, good unsaturated kind. Researchers at Penn State University compared a moderate-fat diet that included peanuts and peanut butter to a low-fat diet and to the average American diet. They found that both the peanuts/peanut butter diet and the low-fat diet lowered total and LDL blood cholesterol levels, but the peanuts/peanut butter diet was more effective than a low-fat diet in maintaining levels of good HDL-cholesterol and lowering triglyceride levels (American Journal Clinical Nutrition, 1999).

Heart Health:
Scientific evidence suggests that eating 1.5 oz of nuts a day—including peanuts—as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of heart disease.

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